The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting was formed as a charity in 1865 to standardise the way the decisions of the courts were collected, analysed and made known to judges, lawyers and the wider public. Our charitable purpose is to support the legal profession and the administration of justice by providing an accurate and consistent law reporting service.

Before our formation, law reporting was carried out by freelance reporters, now known collectively as the Nominates. Often there were two of them, with names like comedy duos: Adolphus & Ellis, Flanagan & Kelly. There was enormous variance in the coverage, accuracy and reliability of their reports, so much so that case reported in more than one series appeared with different facts and judicial holdings.

One of the old reporters, Espinasse, whose volumes covered 1793 to 1807, came in for the most flak and was said by Lord Denning to have heard one half of a case and reported the other. Espinasse wasn't the only reporter singled out for criticism. Barnardiston, a reporter in the King's Bench Division between 1726-35, was said to be "accustomed to slumber over his notebook, and the wags in the rear took the opportunity of scribbling nonsense in it".

Accurate reporting of the decisions of judges is critical in a common law jurisdiction like England & Wales. Since 1865 that has been ICLR's mission, because the words of judges literally form part of our law.

The reporters at ICLR are a niche breed of legal journalist. Our function is to cover the courts, record the argument and assess the impact of judgments on the law. We are not necessarily looking for cases of interest to the media, but those cases that change the law in a material way and set new precedents. Once we identify a case fulfilling that criteria, our job is write a 'headnote' or summary of that case that communicates the points of law decided and the critical facts underpinning those decisions.

The days of reading law in print only are now long gone. The web is brimming with information, and 147 years since our establishment ICLR finds itself as part of an increasingly diverse tapestry of legal reporting. The last couple of years have seen the development of the 'blawgosphere': the coverage provided by the UK Human Rights Blog, in particular, has become a mainstay of comment and analysis on cases involving human rights and civil liberties. BAILII, also a charity, is now an indispensible resource providing fast, free access to judicial decisions.

Guardian Law too has quickly established itself as a hub of legal comment and discussion, which is why ICLR is so pleased to provide its readers with free access to the summaries we publish every day that explain the decisions of the higher courts which we assess as changing the law.

The landscape of legal reporting has changed massively over the last century and a half, but ICLR's mission remains the same: to support the legal profession and the administration of justice by providing an accurate and consistent official law reporting service.